The change will bring Florida's procedure for restoring the civil rights of felons who have served their sentences more in line with the 47 other states that allow for automatic restoration. Only Virginia and Kentucky do not. ... Florida's new rules of clemency require that felons be categorized in one of three tiers, which will determine the process they must follow to obtain restoration of their civil rights. Florida's measure won't automatically restore civil rights to the estimated 950,000 former felons believed to be living in the state, but it will significantly expedite the process.
-- Felon [voting] rights on faster track
All the same, "Attorney General Bill McCollum, who intensely opposed the measure, warned that it will incite more crime." Yes, we all know that depriving those who committed felony and served their time (and paid restitution, per the new rules) ... and repeat offenders/violent offenders will have a harder time of it while sex offenders, murderers and various types of violent offenders will have to be crime free for fifteen years to get a shot ["Tier 2" and "Tier 3"] .. is a major way to stop crime. The governor himself admitted that the new policy is but a compromise -- the restitution requirement, for instance, is a wealth classification, but clearly this supporter of chain gangs is a libbie at heart.
Seriously, it is probably more likely that easing those who served their time/paid their debts back into the community as full citizens would help lessen recidivism. McCollum also doesn't want to accept the structural (and probably some direct) racism of the old policy. "A constant undercurrent of the debate has been the issue of race and incarceration: 50 percent of the state's prison population is black, though only 14 percent of Florida's total population is African-American." Nah ... it is just about people committing crime. See, it's something in their blood that causes certain races to disproportionally be in prison.
Again, reality dictates a series equal protection issue here, the voting issue making it also a Fifteenth Amendment concern. This problem -- while "hanging chads" was the immediate focus of the media and court challenges -- was also a major issue in the 2000 election. There are many reasons why Bush "won" in Florida, but a core one was the felon disenfranchisement policy. The most odious aspect being the use of a way to list felons that was purposely overinclusive. Thus, an underlying policy that left a lot to be desired was carried out in a way that led to by some numbers over 90% false positives. The election officials had to follow the law, but not that way. A way that was patently unconstitutional with any respect of the true meaning of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment.
But, the only "equal protection" concern the Supremes had involved one man. Well, another, Gov. Crist (who announced the new policy referencing someone else with a similar name, noting the "'holy week of redemption"), is to be honored for recognizing what really matters.
[More here, see also comments.]